discovering myself through bach's music
I've been playing piano since I was 5, but I must admit that I haven't really been practicing for the past 3 years. Very on and off, messing around, not really truly learning anything new. I thought I'd change that this year by playing composers that I never really played as a kid - namely Bach.
I used to hate playing Bach as a child - no rubato! No notations! How do you express yourself? It's so robotic! But recently, I've taken a great deal to return to a composer that I once despised playing. I listened to a lot of recordings of famous Bach pieces, but it wasn't until I heard Víkingur Ólafsson's recording of the Goldberg Variations that changed everything.
Listening through the near 70 minute recording (while cooking lunch), I've realized how beautiful Bach's music actually is, and the lack of notations for dynamics, where to do expressivo or play dolce, and other notations you might find in composers in Chopin or Beethoven, is the very reason why Bach is so wonderful.
In other words, it's a blank canvas, an empty board, ready for your ideas. You can play it however you might interpret it, and perhaps because of that, Bach's music is the most romantic of them all. It is a reflection of you - of who you are as a pianist, and more importantly as a person. It's not just a study of a composer, it's a study of you.
I chose to study Bach's Keyboard Partita No. 2 (BWV 826), as I already know the Allemande and love the 2nd Partita. I can't wait to work through it and find a little bit more of myself!
Like a meditation session, I'm gonna explore who I am, what I am, and what I want to express through Bach. It might be the first piece in a while that forces me to look inside to face my inner demons - but, like the art of Van Gogh or Munch, I know beauty will arise out of the piano with each note - one by one - creating something that will transcend mere notes on a page.